This from Stardust’s Rick:
PS: From Member Twinny’s facepage
Gun? Hell, what about M-79’s, M-26s and (gasp) the old fully automatic (not 3 rd. burst) M16A1s. God forbid any of his buddies were responsible enough for a 60mm or 81 mortar. I guess Bloomberg didn’t hear the siren call of preserving America’s independence. Rich people suffer that illness.
It’s official. Cupcake has spoken. I am leaving the Nod command post and transferring my flag to the Castle cabin Sunday to Thursday. As some may know. the reason I survived to mature my hepatitis C virus stateside is due solely to one person in my mind. But for the artful and speedy return to the USAID hospital at LS-20 Sam Thong, I would have bled out. The pilot to whom I owe so much augured in the day after I was released from the hospital for hepatitis on 22 February 1971. I never got a chance to say thank you.
I discovered his demise while working on my claim in 2008. He’s buried in Winchester , Indiana at Fountain Park Cemetery several miles up the road from his homestead in Carlos. A last salute to an old, long-lost friend will fit in nicely with my to-do list before I punch out. I’ll probably need to refuel the Chivas bottle and add a Singha, too. Join me in Magnet, Indiana for what will probably be a memorable occasion.
Gee. I remember this. In the Air Force when you were the poor O-2 wearing the slats and screwed up, off to Thule AFB, Greenland it was. They must have had a lot of openings up there in Air Force Purgatory Then came Vietnam and a new dumping ground. Nowadays the government makes few efforts to rehabilitate you unless… you’re talking about the VA. Well hello? This article reveals a few fell on their swords but the proclivity to swat your hand and promote you now that you have been “reformatted” is still rampant at the VA. I surmise Tonya Deanes is either well-connected politically or has much pulchritude that is artfully and subtly exposed (displayed?)when she is in danger. As for the musical chairs between Service Center managers with backlogs running 3 years like Ulrike at Oakland, what could be more natural than a posting back to VACO on Vermin Ave. This list is far larger than her but Vets get the idea.
Once you pass the dirty fingernails stage at the VA and graduate to a salaried tenure as a professional outside the GS-system, your future isn’t as clouded. Minor professional mismanagement is overlooked and you simply “get over it” and move on. After all, VA has a lot invested in you and cannot keep replacing all those inept employees for minor discrepancies like Orlando. A few sacrificial lambs-yes-but not the whole kit and caboodle. Continuity in how to obfuscate is at a premium and the HR krewe are in high demand.
Thus, we award January’s A.E. Neuman Award to Alice Muellerweiss for duty above and beyond and also award her the Sword of Disembowelment with oak leaf cluster for taking the bullet meant for Tonya.
Onward through the fog to 2015.
Ah, yes. Member and latest winner in the VA lottery Tombo, now proudly sporting close to a 200% rating sends us this priceless study in personality.
An old Navy pilot sat down in Starbucks still wearing his old Navy flight jacket and ordered a cup of coffee. As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the pilot and asked “Are you a real pilot?”
He replied, “Well, I’ve spent my whole life flying planes, first Stearmans, then the early Grummans…. Flew a Wildcat and Corsair in WWII, and later in the Korean conflict, Skyraider and Cougars.. I’ve taught more than 260 people to fly and given rides to hundreds, so I guess I am a pilot, and you, what are you?”
She said, “I’m a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked women. When I shower, I think about naked women. When I watch TV, I think about naked women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women.”
The two sat sipping in silence.
A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old pilot and asked “Are you a real pilot?”
He replied “I always thought I was, but I just found out I’m a lesbian.”
Veterans justice just took another hit on January 4th. Cerise Checo, a young lady with a mobile zip code, was informed that her legal help was amateurish and she was being denied her right to appeal to the CAVC due to being time-challenged.
Let’s see what she did wrong. You don’t have to be specific as you do on a Form 9 regarding why you feel your denial was unjust. Check. If you’re homeless you should be accorded some considerations above and beyond other folks. Check. You should obtain good legal help when you go to the Court seeking redress. Check. The law says you have to file your Notice of Appeal within 120 sunrises and sunsets after the BVA decision. Checkmate.
Cerise violated that one premise after she missed her NOA cutoff date. Her choice of legal help was off kilter or something is extremely amiss. The gentleman, Mark R. Lippman, Esq., made some crucial errors during his oral presentation. When you present your legal arguments to the Court, you don’t “guess” anything. You’re a lawyer. There is no guesswork. Either Cerise’ homelessness was was the causative factor or it wasn’t…
Checo v. Shinseki (2013)
It appears the Court was sitting there with parted lips and bated breath just awaiting a statement From Mark that were it not for the wobbly wheel on Cerise’ shopping cart, she would have made it to the Post Office with time to spare. Being homeless is bound to tug at the heartstrings and I have no doubt she had a leg up at the Court already with this. However, if you don’t give your leagle beagle sufficient information or excuses, things can go horribly awry as they did here. I find it almost impossible to believe that Mr. Lippman, who has eighteen years of experience, could step on his necktie in front of Judges Hagel, Lance and Schoelen. The only other explanation would be what happened to me when I met my DAV rep (an hour late) at the Seattle VARO about ten minutes before showtime.
Unlike attorneys, VSOs have certificates of attendance proving they were present and accounted for at a CFR symposium. There is no test afterwards to see how well you assimilated the knowledge. Since attorneys are not in the same class as VSOs and actually are schooled in the art of law, this predicament rarely occurs. In fact, Ms. Checo was nowhere near 625 Wagonburner Lane NW for this hearing. More’s the pity. Perhaps she could have illuminated everyone on the untimely filing. Knowing how professional Mr. Lippman is, there has to be another logical explanation for how one could appear before the Court utterly unprepared and bereft of excuses to proffer for Cerise’ inexcusable lack of timeliness.
Checo supra
I suspect Mr. Lippman agreed to take this case because he felt compassion for her. Hell, who wouldn’t? I also suspect that by being homeless, Cerise was extremely hard to get in touch with. It may be that Old Mark beat feet from sunny Cal. to D.C. as a stopgap measure without any input from her assuming his legal staff would forward it to him there. On arrival, he had no ammo to fight with and found himself powerless to defend her tardiness. Regardless, this has caused him to lose face- something he can ill afford. Your name is your stock in trade in this business. No self-respecting law dog wants to be painted as a buffoon- and most certainly not before the Court.
The Court issued this as an order. It is not an opinion as there was no decision on the merits of her claim. The order was simply a legal device to announce their intention not to grant equitable tolling. I feel an important milestone for Veterans was missed. This would have been a giant leap for homeless Vetkind if he (Lippman) had been suitably armed and dangerous. Gen. Revered Leader was apparently willing to let it slide because trashing homeless Vets at the Court never plays out well on the six o’clock news. I’m sure he told Will Gunn to moonwalk backward faster than Michael Jackson ever did and keep a low profile. VA isn’t doing to well down at the Court of Public Opinion these days. The last time I checked it was Backlog-985,000, VASEC-2015 (maybe).
Ego te absolvo, Mark.
Remember back to yesteryear when we had Operational Readiness Inspections? A pack of chuckle heads with clipboards would spill out of a C-47 on the laterite in crisp 1505 Khakis with spit-shined shoes and begin what seriously reminded me of the Keystone Kops vignettes. Everything was loud and all answers carried 200 yds. in the wind. Baggage was shuffled until it was organized-in a word- a union job. Fifteen guys to do what 4 could.
After a lot of questions, observation and getting in the way, they would determine things weren’t that bad but could be done better. Thus was born the traveling Dog and Pony Show. The ORI team would show up and everyone bowed and scraped their hats. Amenities were observed and everyone performed their dance. Afterwards the signatories would meet and promise to look into certain “problem” areas that needed improvement.
More bowing and scraping occurred and the ORI team was returned to the C-47 from whence they came. And then? Business as usual. The napalm, which had been hidden over on Air America’s PSP parking apron, would be forklifted over to the bomb dump alongside our parking apron. Smoking would resume within 50 feet of the fuel wagon and life would proceed as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. Fast forward to 2012 and the VA…
Nothing has changed. Their ORI team descends unawares and rolls into town-albeit via commercial air. They aren’t adroit at sneaking up on the medical facility but that is immaterial. They announce themselves and give everyone time to move the napalm and foo gas out of sight. Feast your eyes on what didn’t happen here. Read about what was not discovered or substantiated. Contemplate the fact that the records did not concur on the patient’s claim of suicidal ideation.
Gee. Ya think? I thought they said they frog-marched him out for upsetting the staff watching a rerun of House, M.D. Fortunately for Vets in Dallas, all concerned agreed that a better outcome would have been preferable and that the Great Strides Forward Program (GSFP) has been instituted to insure that this unfortunate debacle never happens again (in Dallas- mind you -but they’ll have to visit every other VA ER in America to make similar assessments). A working memorandum was signed admitting a wee bit of guilt and sack cloth and ashes were distributed. Mea culpas were deemed optional and bonuses were handed out to all involved.
Ahhh!. America. How sweet the sound of wasted money. Now, multiply that by about 200 Emergency Departments. As Senator Barry Goldwater remarked once ” A million here, a million there and pretty soon you’re talking some serious money”. He had no idea anyone at the VA would have the gall to plan an extravaganza like Orlando. He might have died of apoplectia.
I don’t make this stuff up. I don’t have to. VA does it for me and now I’m on their mailing list to make it even easier to learn about. Thank goodness they feel the need to crow about their achievements so much that they publish it on the web. How many Vets lose out on compensation to pay for this boondoggle?
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 80,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
I would like to thank my fellow guest writers Kiedove and Joe Average Vet for their contributions. I invite others to submit articles or become guest authors as well. This site is a compendium of all our efforts-yours and mine. I depend on you, my fellow Vets, for much of what I post here. Concise knowledge of VA law, while important, is not all this site was predicated on. My irrepressible humor bleeds through as most know.
Thank you for a wonderful year. I had no idea 80,000+ people felt an urge to learn about hepatitis and VA law. Maybe they came for my arcane humor. On behalf of my fellow authors, I hope we passed the audition. We look forward to another year of success for all of you fighting the good fight. We will strive to print more that may help you understand the maze you have entered and give you the tools to win with. Some have stated that they cannot find my email or a way to contact me with questions. The email is asknod@gmail.com. If you lose it, look above under the Vietnam Campaign Ribbon and click on “email asknod”. What could be easier? All those widgets up there are active. If you put your cursor on them and left-click your mouse, you will discover a world of information you never dreamed of. I strive to keep link rot to a minimum here. If you find it, by all means inform us so we may repair it. Knowledge is power and we want you to have it. VA doesn’t. That’s all I have to say about that.
In an exciting development, the Veterans Administration announced that the paperless system enshrined at 12 “test VAROs” was working extremely well. Under Secretary Allison “chipmunk” Hickey, in her latest Hickeygram, illustrated for reporters how this worked. Everyone was invited outside for a touchy-feely, hands-on demonstration of the new paperless system and what VA intends to do with all that extra paper…
I received this from member Frank this AM. It only seems fitting when we find out once again that the US Government and their lackeys, the Supreme Court, have decided that 18 Veterans’ suicides a day is perfectly normal and an acceptable attrition rate. I’m sure the esteemed Justices will feel secure in their persons and happy to be Americans but I shiver to think what message this sends to future defenders of our country.
What I hear is:
“Sign here. We promise to take care of you unless we’re suuuuuper busy or underfunded. Hear? No promises but if you so much as disobey an order, we’ll make you pay for it the rest of your life. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. Sign here and be quick about it before we change our minds.”
I don’t know if this provoked Frank to send it to me but that’s irrelevant. He did send a year’s supply of killer Vermont Maple Syrup for Christmas which was unsolicited. Keep up the good work, Frank. This below is very à propos for this not so august day…
You may have retired out or you may have served for a short time.
You may have been a draftee or a volunteer.
You may have served in the Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or the Merchant Marines,
BUT YOU SERVED. YOU DID YOUR JOB HONORABLY and for that I am PROUD to call you ‘Brother.’
You may have served during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Persian Gulf, Iraq or Afghanistan , But you served, you did not run.
You have earned your DD 214 with those words “HONORABLY DISCHARGED” two of the most noble words in the world.
Again I am proud to know each and every one of you.
* Today is Band of Brothers’ Day* ; send this to all your brothers, fathers, sons and fellow veterans you know. Happy Band of Brothers’ Day!
To the cool men that have touched my life: Here’s to you!! I was never a hero, but I am thankful and proud to have served among them.
Remember…..A real Brother walks with you when the rest of the world walks on you.
This apparently was authored by one 1st Sgt. Ray L. Flood, U.S. Army Military Police (ret.). He probably wanted to serve in the Air Force but they were undoubtedly all booked up that month when he went to sign up. At least he decided America was more important than being all you can be at Domino’s Pizza.
And to be fair and all-inclusive to the Kumbaya Korps, I embrace all of you who wanted to serve but felt the call of the wild in Canada. As Winston Churchill might have observed “They served also who only stood on the other side of the border and waited.” Thank you all, my unselfish fellow brothers and sisters.
Band of Brothers Day for all of us who served in Vietnam is officially May 7th every year as that is the day the American Government declared the “conflict” over. I believe the race to the rooftop over at the US Embassy was April 30, 1975 but I do know some of my friends in Air America were still over at Tan Son Nhut packing up PC-6s for transport out to Taiwan on the 7th when the NVA showed up.
Wouldn’t this be a kick in the butt? Member J.A. Vet sent this tidbit this afternoon about the CAVC’s propensity to get out the Pontius Pilate water and wash their hands of all decisions requiring an actual decision based on the facts and rather concentrate on letting the BVA do that. This provokes the much discussed hamster wheel effect. It would be refreshing and speed up justice immeasurably if the Supremes decided that the Court not only has but should exert more energy in deciding rather than remanding decisions. Reversals would be just dandy, too.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 